High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

Lin Zhao squeezed into the crevice, and Song Chen followed.

The space inside the crack was larger than he had imagined; it was a naturally formed cave passage with traces of water erosion on the walls and the ground had been leveled and paved with gravel.

The passage sloped downwards, and after walking about fifty meters, the warm yellow glow of an oil lamp appeared ahead.

At the end of the passage was a cave.

The cave is not large, about 30 to 40 square meters, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and rough stone slabs on the ground.

Inside the cave was a stone table, several stone benches, and a bed made of wood and animal hides.

An oil lamp sat on the stone table, and an old man sat under the lamp.

The old man was very old, with completely white hair that sparsely fell over his shoulders.

The wrinkles on his face were as deep as if they had been carved by a knife, and his skin was so thin that you could see the blood vessels underneath.

Song Chen sensed a spiritual force sweeping over him. It wasn't strong, probably at the second level, but it was extremely stable, like ripples on a stagnant pool.

The old man's blood and qi fluctuations were very weak, at the first level, but his mental energy fluctuations made Song Chen narrow his eyes slightly.

Spiritual power is not like blood and qi, and it does not decline with age. When this old man was young, his spiritual power was probably more than level two.

Lin Zhao said to the old man, "Old Zhou, I brought someone with me."

The old man named Lao Zhou nodded.

"Which level?" Old Zhou asked.

Lin Zhao glanced at Song Chen and then introduced them.

"Third tier".

Old Zhou raised his eyebrows slightly. Third-tier humans on this island are already considered top-tier; the sea creatures wouldn't abduct fourth-tier humans to the island—that would be too dangerous.

"Where did you come from?"

"To the west, towards the Shattered Star Sea."

Old Zhou was silent for a moment, then nodded.

He didn't inquire about her background. Like Lin Zhao, asking too many questions on this island was pointless.

"Lin Zhao brought you to see me, which means she trusts you."

"It also shows that what you said or did made her feel that you were useful."

Old Zhou's voice was hoarse, but his words were clear as he looked at Song Chen.

"Young man, what do you want to do?"

Song Chen didn't beat around the bush.

"Destroy the nuclear facilities on this island."

"Then we'll go home together."

There was a three-second silence in the cave.

Old Zhou was neither shocked nor laughed; his expression remained almost unchanged. He simply slowly withdrew his hand from the stone table, interlaced his fingers, and placed it on his knee.

"Did you know that a fifth-tier beast king guards the island?"

"Lin Zhao told me."

"Then what makes you think you can destroy it?"

Song Chen didn't answer the question. He looked into Lao Zhou's eyes and asked instead, "How long have you been here?"

Old Zhou was silent for a moment.

"I've been here for thirty-two years, and Lin Zhao has been here for eleven years."

"Thirty-two years," Song Chen repeated the number.

"You spent thirty-two years teaching the sea creatures how to build nuclear bombs. You taught them how to operate reactors themselves, how to train new operators, and how to send technicians to other islands."

"Do you think the sea creatures will still keep you around once they've fully learned how to do it?"

Old Zhou did not answer.

The answer is obvious to everyone: the sea creatures respect knowledgeable people because they are useful.

Once they learn it on their own, what was once useful becomes a threat.

A human who knows all the technical details is a threat to life, and the sea creatures will not allow him to live.

"So you actually want to destroy this place too."

"It's just that we can't do it."

Song Chen continued.

Old Zhou interlaced his fingers and remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

"Young man, you ask us if we want to destroy this place. I tell you, yes. Every sane person on this island wants to."

"But not in the way you described, we can't kill a fifth-tier beast king."

"So we used our methods to teach a formula wrong, change a parameter, and delay the progress of a project. For thirty years, we have used this method to slow down the nuclear program of the sea tribe by at least ten years."

"But you're right, that's not enough. They'll learn eventually, and when they do—"

Song Chen looked at him seriously: "What if I could kill that fifth-tier beast king?"

Old Zhou raised his head slightly: "You? Third rank?"

Song Chen didn't explain. He loosely clenched his right hand, using his fingers as a knife, and lightly made a cut in front of him.

Five similar sword intent cracks appeared in the air.

Same length, same depth, same spacing.

This time, the crack lingered for a longer time, and the sword intent was stronger. He did this intentionally so that Old Zhou's spiritual power could perceive it.

Old Zhou sensed it.

His eyes widened suddenly, and his fingers trembled slightly.

Thirty-two years have passed, and he has seen far too many martial artists on this island.

But he had never seen this kind of knife technique before.

"Is this a master-level sword technique?" Old Zhou's voice became very soft.

"right."

Old Zhou didn't ask Song Chen how he trained; some questions don't need to be asked.

The cave remained quiet for a long time.

Old Zhou remained motionless, his ten fingers interlaced, deep in thought about the problem.

Then he spoke.

"Young man, you've only been on this island for less than two hours. You say you want to destroy the nuclear facilities, you say you can kill a fifth-tier beast king. Why should we believe you?"

"What if you're sent by the sea creatures to test us?"

"Even though we are core members, we will still die if we do this kind of thing."

Song Chen looked at him.

"How do you want me to prove it?"

Old Zhou untied his interlaced fingers and placed them on the stone table.

"The fifth-tier beast king on the island has three direct bloodlines, all of which are fourth-tier."

"One end is in the deep sea area on the north side of the island, one end is in the reef group on the east side, and one end is in the raw material storage area on the west side."

"They are the eyes and ears of the abyssal siren; any anomalies on the island are communicated to the abyssal siren through them."

"Kill them, and we'll believe you."

Song Chen pondered for a moment: "If we kill them, won't the abyssal sea monsters find out?"

"It won't be discovered immediately; these three direct bloodlines only report to the Abyss Sea Monster once every three days."

"The last report was yesterday, which means you have a day and a half. Within that day and a half, you can kill three fourth-tier monsters without the Abyss Sea Monster noticing."

Song Chen thought for a moment and decided that the three heads and four tiers were scattered in different directions on the island.

They had to be killed within a day and a half, and all of this had to be done silently, without being discovered by any other sea creatures.

The difficulty of this task is acceptable.

But what he wanted most wasn't the difficulty.

"And then what?"

"With three fourth-tier direct bloodlines missing at the same time, the Abyss Siren will find out sooner or later. When it awakens, the entire island will be turned upside down."

Old Zhou explained to him, "Guangchang Island is 3,000 kilometers away from the nearest mainland, so the sea creatures have a low level of vigilance."

"At this distance, the sea creatures are not defending against external enemies, and human spaceships simply do not dare to venture into the ocean at this distance."

"They are defending against internal threats, preventing us from escaping and causing damage. The fifth-tier beast king slumbers in the deep sea and will not surface unless its direct bloodline actively awakens it."

"Kill them secretly. As long as you do it cleanly, it won't attract other strange beasts."

After thinking it over in his mind, Song Chen realized a problem.

"You planned this all along, didn't you?"

Old Zhou did not deny it; a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Thirty-two years have passed, young man. Do you think we've all just been waiting to die?"

Song Chen looked at him, and then he nodded.

"I'll go kill him. Tell me the exact location."

Old Zhou pulled out a roll of animal hide from a hidden compartment under the stone table.

The animal hide, when unfolded, revealed a hand-drawn map of Guangchang Island.

The island's outline, the mountain's profile, the depth distribution of the surrounding sea, and the activity range and daily routines of the three-headed, four-tiered direct bloodline are all clearly marked.

The ink marks vary in shade, indicating that they were not painted in one go, but rather gradually added over many years.

Song Chen lowered her head and began to look at the map.

His fingers moved slowly along the island's outline, etching every piece of information into his mind.

The golden light of the Mystic Eyes shone deep within his pupils, magnifying every mark on the map several times over and etching it into his memory.

Lin Zhao stood at the cave entrance, arms crossed, her eyes fixed on Song Chen's profile.